Fire Alarm Control Module

control module

A special module in a computer program which is used to control the other modules by specifying the conditions under which they will be called into action.

A control unit in general is a central (or sometimes distributed but clearly distinguishable) part of whatsoever machinery that controls its operation, provided that a piece of machinery is complex and organized enough to contain any such unit.

One of several names for a solid-state micro-computer which monitors engine conditions and controls certain engine functions, i.e., air/fuel ratio, injection and ignition timing, etc.

fire alarm

A device making a loud noise that gives warning of a fire

An automatic fire alarm system is designed to detect the unwanted presence of fire by monitoring environmental changes associated with combustion. In general, a fire alarm system is either classified as automatically actuated, manually actuated, or both.

an alarm that is tripped off by fire or smoke

a shout or bell to warn that fire has broken out

40 Years Moon First Step

July 1969. It’s a little over eight years since the flights of Gagarin and Shepard, followed quickly by President Kennedy’s challenge to put a man on the moon before the decade is out.

It is only seven months since NASA’s made a bold decision to send Apollo 8 all the way to the moon on the first manned flight of the massive Saturn V rocket.

Now, on the morning of July 16, Apollo 11 astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin and Michael Collins sit atop another Saturn V at Launch Complex 39A at the Kennedy Space Center. The three-stage 363-foot rocket will use its 7.5 million pounds of thrust to propel them into space and into history.

At 9:32 a.m. EDT, the engines fire and Apollo 11 clears the tower. About 12 minutes later, the crew is in Earth orbit. (› Play Audio)

After one and a half orbits, Apollo 11 gets a "go" for what mission controllers call "Translunar Injection" — in other words, it’s time to head for the moon. Three days later the crew is in lunar orbit. A day after that, Armstrong and Aldrin climb into the lunar module Eagle and begin the descent, while Collins orbits in the command module Columbia.

Collins later writes that Eagle is "the weirdest looking contraption I have ever seen in the sky," but it will prove its worth.

When it comes time to set Eagle down in the Sea of Tranquility, Armstrong improvises, manually piloting the ship past an area littered with boulders. During the final seconds of descent, Eagle’s computer is sounding alarms.

It turns out to be a simple case of the computer trying to do too many things at once, but as Aldrin will later point out, "unfortunately it came up when we did not want to be trying to solve these particular problems."

When the lunar module lands at 4:18 p.m EDT, only 30 seconds of fuel remain. Armstrong radios "Houston, Tranquility Base here. The Eagle has landed." Mission control erupts in celebration as the tension breaks, and a controller tells the crew "You got a bunch of guys about to turn blue, we’re breathing again."

Armstrong will later confirm that landing was his biggest concern, saying "the unknowns were rampant," and "there were just a thousand things to worry about."

At 10:56 p.m. EDT Armstrong is ready to plant the first human foot on another world. With more than half a billion people watching on television, he climbs down the ladder and proclaims: "That’s one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."

Aldrin joins him shortly, and offers a simple but powerful description of the lunar surface: "magnificent desolation." They explore the surface for two and a half hours, collecting samples and taking photographs.

They leave behind an American flag, a patch honoring the fallen Apollo 1 crew, and a plaque on one of Eagle’s legs. It reads, "Here men from the planet Earth first set foot upon the moon. July 1969 A.D. We came in peace for all mankind."

Armstrong and Aldrin blast off and dock with Collins in Columbia. Collins later says that "for the first time," he "really felt that we were going to carry this thing off."

The crew splashes down off Hawaii on July 24. Kennedy’s challenge has been met. Men from Earth have walked on the moon and returned safely home.

In an interview years later, Armstrong praises the "hundreds of thousands" of people behind the project. "Every guy that’s setting up the tests, cranking the torque wrench, and so on, is saying, man or woman, ‘If anything goes wrong here, it’s not going to be my fault.’"

In a post-flight press conference, Armstrong calls the flight "a beginning of a new age," while Collins talks about future journeys to Mars.

Over the next three and a half years, 10 astronauts will follow in their footsteps. Gene Cernan, commander of the last Apollo mission leaves the lunar surface with these words: "We leave as we came and, god willing, as we shall return, with peace, and hope for all mankind."

The bootprints of Apollo are waiting for company.

July 20th, 1969 / 2009 – 40 Years

Apollo Command Module Panel

A supremely rare item, this is a fully intact instrument panel from the early Apollo 1 Command Module design (specifically MDC-18 from the Block 1 spacecraft series).

The panel was released by North American Aviation after the pad fire accident that claimed the lives of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee in 1967 and precipitated a further redesign of many wiring elements for safety.

With a 400Hz 120V AC supply, I may be able to energize it… =)

The various warning signals, such as Bus A and Bus B undervolt, and the various Fuel Cell indicators for the H2 and O2 tanks reminded me of the Apollo 13 drama. “Houston, we’ve had a problem. We’ve had a main B bus undervolt.”

These readings and controls would have been the area of intense interest to the crew as they tried to understand what had happened (the number 2 oxygen tank in the service module had exploded).